Mercy
by Cas di Angelo
Summary: Broken. Beaten. Trapped. This was not how Marinette had imagined her Tuesday ending. Her heart was pounding as hard as her fists on the doors of the van they were in, and her wrists were starting to ache from the effort.
1. Chapter 1

Broken. Beaten. Trapped. This was not how Marinette had imagined her Tuesday ending. Her heart was pounding as hard as her fists on the doors of the van they were in, and her wrists were starting to ache from the effort.

"Let is out! Hawk Moth!" she yelled. She didn't even _know_ how he'd beaten them. Just that a few minutes ago she had run into the van to get Chat Noir, and then the doors were closed behind her. She'd used her lucky charm, dropped her yo-yo. Today was not her lucky day.

"I'm so sorry, Chat," she said, dropping down and hugging her knees. "This is my fault..."

"What? How could it be your fault?" His voice was strained, and Marinette was sure his ankle was sprained, if not broken. "I got tricked first. This is all my fault. I should have known I was running into a trap."

Marinette didn't say anything. She flinched as her earrings chimed, warning her that she was running out of time. She guessed she maybe had three minutes left.

"Hey..." Chat Noir's voice came softer, but still pained. "We're together, right? We'll figure this out."

The van rumbled to life and started moving, the doors clanging with every bump in the road. Marinette pressed her palm against it, watching the shadow of a chain and padlock rattle on the other side. She gnawed on her lip as she heard Chat's ring chime its own warning.

"I won't look," she whispered. She was finding it increasingly hard to draw in a deep breath. She swallowed and raised her voice. "I won't look when you change back."

"Afraid you'll find me too irresistible?" he laughed, but it was short, and cut off with a gasp through his teeth. Marinette risked a glance over her shoulder. He was cradling his ankle, prodding it tenderly.

They were silent, each wrapped in their own thoughts. Marinette mentally scolded herself again for falling for Hawk Moth's trap: It had seemed like they'd had him cornered on the bridge, and when Chat Noir used his Cataclysm, something went wrong and the bridge turned out to be rigged with explosives. They were both blown back: Marinette onto the side of the canal and Chat into the water. While Marinette had struggled to dodge oncoming traffic, Hawk Moth had already whisked Chat into the back of a moving van. She used her Lucky Charm to create a double of herself, thinking Hawk Moth would chase it and give her time to get to her partner... She had just knelt to check his hurt leg when the van doors slammed behind her.

Their Miraculouses chimed again and Marinette pressed her forehead into her knees. She was starting to shake almost uncontrollably. They had lost, and Hawk Moth was going to strip them of their charms, their kwamis, and their powers. And that was a best-case scenario! Her mind reeled as her imagination flipped through all the horrible things he might do to them. The enormity of it all burst from Marinette in a hysterical sob that she fought back as soon as it came out.

"My Lady?"

Marinette shook her head vehemently.

"...Bugaboo?"

He was closer. She felt a hand on her shoulder and she wanted, oh how she wanted to melt into his familiar arms and let him comfort her! But, their time was almost up. Soon she would no longer be Ladybug, and he'd be... whoever he was. Their secret identities were no longer going to be secret. She was terrified.

"How's your leg?" Better to try and focus on something else, something small.

"Well it's not a cat-astrophe," Chat Noir shrugged, though he also grimaced. Marinette sighed at his pun.

"Turn around if you can," she said. "It's best who we are stays secret from each other."

"I don't think Hawk Moth is gonna give us that choice," he said. But he grunted and shifted so he was sitting back to back with her.

It was just a little, but the warmth of another human helped. Marinette imagined that warmth slowly spreading through her body and relaxing her limbs. Chat Noir was right. Hawk Moth probably had no respect for their secrets. She bit her lip and squinted in thought.

"I am an aspiring designer," she said.

"What, really?" Chat almost turned around, but his ring chimed again, last time. Last minute. "I speak Chinese."

Marinette actually giggled. "My family is Chinese."

"Well, hey, what a coincidence," he sounded like he was smiling. "I...I've never felt as free as I have with you, Ladybug."

Marinette smiled, sadly. "I've never had a friend quite like you."

"I-" Chat Noir leaned away from her. "I'm out of time."

There was a little surge of light, and Marinette focused on her toes. No way was she going to see who he was. No way.

Just seconds later though, she transformed too, and she was looking at her plain trainers. Her arms drooped and her wrists hit the floor. Tikki looked up at her with big eyes and all she could do was hug Marinette's leg. Behind her, she could hear Chat Noir's kwami complaining about being hungry.

"Hey, stop that, it hurts-"

"How can we work together if you never have any Camembert?"

"You can beg for cheese and not hit my ankle, you know-"

"Just wrap it up with this, no sweat."

Marinette's curiosity got the better of her-if only a little-and she turned her head slightly so she could see Chat out of the corner of her eye. He was shrugging out of a white button down shirt and clumsily wrapping it around his ankle.

"You might need to take your shoe off," she said.

Chat's kwami instantly complained. "Naw, your feet smell terrible!"

"No worse than your cheese!"

The van must have hit a pothole, and everyone was jolted enough to clear a couple inches from the van floor. Marinette landed on her back, and Chat landed on his side. He yelled out and clutched his ankle, and Marinette couldn't help it, she looked at him to see if he was okay and-

"Adrien?"

Time seemed to freeze. Or at least, slow waaay down. Chat-Adrien?!-propped himself up on his elbow, probably ready with some clever retort, but then his mouth simply hung open. They stared at each other, the last few months positively flying through Marinette's mind; comparing moments with Adrien and Chat Noir, how she could have _sworn_ Chat was protecting Adrien, and how-how... Chat Noir was a notorious flirt with Ladybug. Marinette's face burned.

"Hey, no fair," Adrien cracked a weak smile. "You looked at me."

Marinette had no response, though her jaw seemed to be working plenty. Adrien actually reached over with a slightly shaking hand and put a finger under her chin to close her mouth for her. Then he laid back, using one of his arms as a pillow, and watched her face.

"It makes sense," he said finally.

"What does?" Marinette croaked.

"Well, thinking about it," Adrien tapped his fingers on the floor. "You carry the same compassion when you're Ladybug as when you're Marinette. You can also have the same fiery temper, and the same warm kindness." He looked like he wanted to say more, but he just settled to watch her face.

"You..." Marinette wanted to show that she'd paid attention to both sides of him, too. To say nice things about him, but something else caught her eye. "You're bleeding."

"Hmm?" Adrien looked himself over, then at his wrapped ankle. The white shirt _was_ starting to blossom dark red.

Without waiting for permission, Marinette slid over and picked at the poor wrap job. "You should have let me do this," she said. "I could have-"

They didn't get to find out what she could have done, because suddenly the van squealed to a stop. Doors banged shut, and boots crunched gravel. Their kwamis quickly hid. Adrien worked himself up and pulled Marinette around so he was between her and the door.

"Stay with me, bugaboo," he whispered. He held tight to her hand.

They flinched as the doors swung wide open.

* * *

 _oooh wonder what's gonna happen next?_


	2. Chapter 2

_Thanks to everyone who read and reviewed!_

* * *

Almost immediately there was a massive swarm of butterflies around them. Adrien shut his eyes tight and hugged Marinette ( _his Ladybug !)_ closer.

"I must apologize," Hawk Moth said. "But something more important than you came up and I must take a leave of absence. Don't worry. I will be back soon to take care of you both."

The butterfly swarm amazingly lifted them both out of the truck, carrying them along. There was no sound of footsteps nearby, and because they were floating Adrien had a hard time keeping track of the direction they were going. If he had to guess he'd say they went up some stairs, around some corners, and up even more stairs. The only sounds he could hear was the soft shuffle of butterfly wings and Marinette's erratic breathing. He gave her arm a squeeze.

"We're gonna be okay," he whispered in her ear. "We're gonna be okay."

Marinette nodded quickly, though he could tell she was still super tense. To be fair, he was too. A lot of strange things happened since becoming Chat Noir, but nothing quite so strange as travelling by _butterfly_.

They must have arrived at their final destination because they were dropped unceremoniously, and Adrien couldn't hold back the scream as flaming pain shot up and down his ankle. Tears sprung to his eyes and he almost missed the sound of a door locking. Since when could butterflies lock doors?

"Oh gosh," Marinette was kneeling in front of him, squinting through the darkness. "Oh gosh, oh gosh, oh gosh..."

"I'm fine," Adrien forced out. He blinked a couple times. "We should try to find a way out of here."

"Tikki, see if you can find some food. We need to transform!" Marinette said to her kwami.

Plagg flew out of Adrien's shirt. "I hope I can find some camembert!" he said. With a poof, he and Tikki disappeared through the door.

"How long do you think we have before Hawk Moth comes back?"

Marinette shrugged. "I'm more curious about what he thinks is more important than us. He's been after us for so long."

"I guess we should be glad," Adrien peered at his ankle. It was hard to see with just the light from under the door, but he thought he saw more blood. "Now you can give me a proper cast, right doctor Ladybug?"

"I wish," Marinette sighed. She was feeling around the room, probably a closet. She groaned in frustration. "There's nothing in here! Sorry..."

Adrien watched her for a beat, smiling fondly. "Hey, Marinette?"

"Hmm?"

"I'm glad it's you," he said. "I mean, can you imagine Chloe in this situation?"

That did the trick; Marinette laughed a little. "She'd complain about her hair."

Adrien raised his voice. "How dare you! Do you know how long these nails took? Do you know who my father is?"

Marinette laughed more. "That sounds exactly like her!"

"I like your laugh," Adrien said, smiling.

She grew quiet, and was back to hugging her knees. Even in the dark, Adrien could tell her smile was fading. _No!_ he thought. _Keep smiling! I love it!_

"I'm sure we'll get out of here before Hawk Moth comes back," Adrien assured her.

"I guess," she said softly. "But what if we can't get far enough away? And what happens the next time he akumatises someone? He already beat us once."

"No." Adrien said firmly. He reached out and gripped her shoulder. "You still have your earrings. I still have my ring. Plagg and Tikki are out finding food, and when they come back we can transform and bust outta here. Hawk Moth didn't beat us, he only stalled us a little. Got it?"

"We don't know where we are," Marinette pointed out. Why was she being such a downer? "And you can't move very fast with a hurt leg."

"I can use my stick as a crutch when I transform," Adrien shrugged. "We'll figure things out, we always do."

"Mmm," Marinette's gaze fell to the floor.

Adrien watched her, wondering what in the world was going through her mind. He wished he could say just the right words to encourage her, to give her strength, but everything he tried in his mind seemed wrong. To seem busy, he dropped to his stomach and pressed his face to the crack under the door.

"See anything?"

"Just white walls and floor." Adrien squinted. "I think we're just barely at the top of a staircase."

He turned onto his back, even though the movement hurt. He chewed the inside of his cheek, still trying to think of a way to help Marinette. She was picking at a stray string on her shoe, her eyebrows drawn together in concentration. Adrien wanted very badly to reach up and touch her face, to feel exactly how soft her skin was without his gloves, and the thought of it made him smile a little. Marinette noticed.

"What?"

"Just thinking about you," Adrien said.

"You're shameless," she muttered into her knees. But Adrien could tell she was smiling. He watched her for a few infinite seconds, his feelings bubbling up inside him, and then-

"Can I kiss you?"

Marinette's head shot up, her eyes wide open. She was fumbling for words. "I-You-" she huffed, and then scowled disbelievingly. "We're here, waiting on edge for our most dangerous enemy to come back and you want to _kiss me?_ "

Adrien didn't know how he was going to defend his question, so Plagg's timing was fantastic. He and Tikki _poofed_ through the door, looking wired.

"Did you find food?" Adrien asked.

"Yeah, we're good-but listen-"

"Plagg, claws out!"

"Tikki, spots on!"

The small closet filled with light and the two of them were masked once again. Marinette-Ladybug-sighed with relief when she found that her yo-yo was restored to her.

"Let's get out of here," she said, unwinding it from around her waist. She tapped the thing for a second, then slid a loop of string under the door.

"What do you have in mind, My Lady?"

"I think I could get this hooked around the latch," she said, moving the loop carefully up the side of the door. "I want to try opening it from the outside."

"I'll just break it," Adrien said. "Catacl-!"

"No!" Ladybug said quickly. "If we can get out of here we don't want it immediately obvious that we've escaped! Besides, then you'll change back and we'll be back at square one."

"Fair enough," Adrien extended his stick and heaved himself onto his one good foot, clenching his teeth from the shooting pain.

It took a minute of work, but Ladybug succeeded in opening the door. "Who has a closet that locks from that side, anyway?" she wondered. "Come on, let's go."

They stepped out onto the landing, supporting each other, and only made it a few steps down before Adrien slowed, frowning.

"Hold on," he said, looking around.

"For what? We don't have time!"

"No, I..." Adrien hobbled down the stairs to another landing that turned the staircase. "I live here."

Ladybug looked around. "How..."

"This has to be a trick."

Adrien didn't like the way Ladybug was suddenly looking at him. She took a breath to say something but he cut her off. "Don't say it. But now at least I have an idea. Come on."

It wasn't, in fact, some kind of trick. It actually was Adrien's house. They went into his room, and he sat down on his bed. "We need to change back, and there are some harnesses in that drawer over there."

The plan was to make it look like they'd been climbing on the rock walls in his room, and then call for Adrien's body guard and have him take them to the hospital. "You're here because you'd never rock climbed before. I wasn't using the repelling rope because I wanted to show off, but then I slipped and fell. Then once we're in the hospital, and in the public eye, we should be okay for a little bit."

They helped each other into the harnesses, and once they were secure, Adrien grimaced at the wall. "Now the hard part. I need to make my fall look convincing."

Marinette looked worried. "You can't hurt yourself more," she said. "Just tell me what to do and I'll do it."

"I need to be there," he said. "And we need a loud bang, so it _sounds_ like I fell."

"Okay, let me help you up," Marinette held out her arms.

Amazing, sweet, dependable Ladybug. Marinette. Adrien was still amazed at who she was. But what amazed him most was that, while at school she'd always seemed timid and tongue-tied around him, now she was focused and determined. Even if he didn't know who she was, he'd be able to tell she was Ladybug. He wrapped an arm around her shoulders and pulled himself up on his good foot, and before she could say otherwise he gave her a swift kiss on the cheek.

"For being so incredible," he said with a smile. Her cheeks turned pink.

When all was set, Marinette rocked the dresser against the wall and Adrien yelled out as loud as he could. It wasn't tough-his ankle was throbbing unbearably. Sure enough, within seconds his bodyguard came running, a look of concern and surprise on his face. Marinette played her part perfectly.

"Oh please, I think his ankle is broken! We need a hospital!"

Wordlessly, Adrien was scooped up and hurried out to a car. Marinette climbed into the back seat with him, and they were off. Already Adrien could feel himself breathing easier.

"Good plan," Marinette murmured. She turned and watched the Agreste mansion disappear behind them. She was frowning again.

"Stop that," Adrien said. "We're gonna be okay now."

"I know, I just..." She chewed her lip. "What happens when he finds out we're gone?"

Adrien scowled out the window at the passing buildings. What _would_ they do? He couldn't fight, that much was certain. At best they'd be in the hospital all night. But the chances of him finding them again were... Adrien's eyes shifted to his bodyguard. He would most likely stay with them at the hospital, seeing as they were both underage. Okay. Not something to worry too much about. Adrien took a deep breath and arched his back.

"Hey, Marinette?"

"Hmm?" She met his eyes, and he could tell she was just as tired as he was.

He cracked a smile. "You never really answered my question."

"What..." Marinette stopped and all but rolled her eyes. "I did. You're crazy."

"Well, that was then," he offered, hopefully. "Now we're not exactly in danger..."

Marinette turned forward and fiddled with her fingers. She was quiet for a long time. In fact, they were pulling up to the hospital when she spoke. "If we both get out of this in one piece, then I'll answer you."

* * *

 _I am loving this story, hope you are too! Stay tuned to see what's next!_


	3. Chapter 3

Thankfully, it was not a busy night at the hospital. They got into the waiting room and were immediately ushered down the hall to a set of chairs. A nurse took Adrien's vitals while his bodyguard gave their credentials at a desk. Marinette bit down on her lip hard when she could properly see how bad his ankle had gotten. His shirt was almost completely blood-stained, and his foot rested at an odd angle.

"How exactly did this happen?" asked the nurse as she took of the blood pressure cuff. She was frowning at Adrien's ankle.

"I was trying to impress her," Adrien said with a nervous laugh. "Fell off a rock wall."

The nurse clicked her tongue and crouched to get a closer look. She scribbled something in a notepad. "We'll take you to get an x-ray, and then we can talk about what's next." She raised a small radio and asked for a wheelchair.

"Please, can I stay with him?" Marinette asked anxiously. The nurse sighed shortly and nodded.

They had to take the shirt off his ankle to take the x-ray, and they even cut Adrien's jeans up to his knee. Marinette smirked at the thought of him walking around like that, but her mood fell as soon as they had a picture to look at. The nurse frowned and shook her head.

"You have a nail in your ankle," she said, pointing it out. "It looks small, but it needs to come out right away. You'll need a shot, too. Maybe stitches." She wheeled him into a patient room, got him onto the bed, and walked out, writing in her notepad some more.

"Can you see it?" Adrien asked. He was craning his head, trying to get a good look at his now bare ankle; it was swollen and bruised, with patches of blood dried on.

Marinette shook her head and looked away. "I don't really do good with broken skin," she said faintly. She folded her arms and leaned on the side of the bed, watching the lights blinking on a bedside monitor. She felt Adrien rest his hand on her shoulder.

"You doing okay?" he asked.

Marinette frowned. Was she? There were so many things in her mind fighting for attention, that she really wasn't sure. She hadn't even realized until now that it was almost midnight. She blinked and rubbed her eyes.

"I'd love to get some sleep," she said. "But..."

"Too on edge," Adrien finished, nodding. He bit back a yawn. "Somehow I don't think our night is over yet."

It really wasn't. Soon someone came in to remove the nail, and Adrien did need a single stitch in the spot. Then they cleaned his foot and fitted a sort of mesh sleeve over his ankle. The nurse doing it explained that Adrien was lucky that he'd had a clean break, and only through his fibula. If all went well Adrien would be able to walk out of there with crutches and a reinforced boot.

While he was carefully easing a boot onto Adrien's foot, Adrien smiled at Marinette. "I guess ladybugs really are good luck," he said.

Another nurse came in with a syringe, as well as printed care instructions for Adrien to take with him. While she was talking, Marinette laid her head down on her arms and let her eyes drift closed, the voices in the room and sounds of the hospital becoming weird echoes in her head. She could feel Adrien rubbing his thumb across the back of her neck, and she knew on a normal day she'd be light-headed and giddy at the touch, but today was far cry from normal.

It only felt like seconds later that Adrien was gently shaking her awake. "Come on, time to go."

She yawned and stretched, and helped Adrien stand and adjust to his crutches. She watched him go, frowning. How long was he going to be out of commission? She doubted Hawk Moth would let them recover from their capture and escape. In fact, the more she thought about it the more she realized their escape had been _too_ easy...

"Hold up," Marinette caught his elbow and leaned close, glancing at the bodyguard waiting just outside the door. "I don't think we should split up."

Adrien idly drummed his fingers on the handles of his crutches. "I agree. But I don't think I get a say in where I go from here."

"Sure you do," Marinette patted his shoulder and then hurried over to his bodyguard. "Can you go warm up the car? We're both kinda cold and it'd be nice not to wait for the heater."

The gorilla grunted and shuffled off down the hall. Marinette turned back to Adrien with a sly smile. "Now _we_ go out a different door."

"I love it when you're devious," Adrien said happily, making Marinette blush. They found their way towards the stairs, going carefully to not jostle Adrien's ankle too much.

"I have a camp bed that Alya uses sometimes, I can pull it out if you want," Marinette said as she helped him up the stairs. "I just hope my parents don't ask too many questions."

"I'm so tired I could sleep on the floor," Adrien said. "As long as I get to have a pillow I'll be fine."

Once they were on the roof, Marinette took a deep breath and shivered a bit. She wondered if it was wise to take the rooftops home when they were tired and hurt. The streets were practically empty, and the streetlamps offered a peaceful glow rising up through the close buildings. She leaned on the retaining wall and gave herself a moment to admire the sight. Adrien's crutches clicked rhythmically as he came over to join her.

"I wish it could be like this all the time," he said.

Marinette glanced at him, a question behind her eyes. He smiled and waved a hand at the city.

"Serene, quiet," he offered. "No akumatized villains messing things up."

Marinette fiddled with her nails, her eyebrows drawn together slightly. In all the fuss of the hospital, she'd briefly forgotten about their not-so-secrets. In all honesty, she was amazed at herself. Thinking back on every interaction between her and Chat Noir, and her and Adrien, she found herself wondering if she could be calm and collected all the time. He was less intimidating, for sure. Her mind began to wander of its own accord, and she just began to enjoy the night wind on her face when her memories reminded her of-

Marinette squeaked and buried her face in her arms. _Holy crap she'd kissed Adrien. Holy freaking crap._

Unfortunately for her, her sudden embarrassment did not go unnoticed. Adrien chuckled, a little nervously. "Marinette?" he asked, lightly touching her arm. When she only shook her head and stayed hidden he leaned in closer. "What's wrong, bugaboo?"

His nickname for her honestly only made things worse. Her face became unbearably hot while at the same time it felt like someone was inflating a balloon inside her chest. She was screaming inside her head.

"If you don't tell me what's wrong I'm gonna have to start guessing," Adrien said. Marinette peeked at him and he was tapping his chin, pretending to be in deep thought. He glanced at her and smiled when he saw she was looking. "You forgot to do your homework? Or maybe..."

"No," Marinette groaned to hide her laugh. She didn't want to hear what he thought would embarrass her. She scrunched her nose and then sighed. "I... I remembered back to one of the akumas we fought... Dark Cupid?"

"Ha," Adrien said dryly. "Yeah. I still feel terrible about the things I said to you then. But wait, why is that cringe-worthy for you?"

"Um, not really cringe-worthy," Marinette said softly. She laced her fingers together and squeezed. _I can do this,_ she thought. _We're running out of secrets to keep._ "But-um-well, to get you out of Dark Cupid's spell-I had to kiss you."

Surprise, confusion, wonder, and then disappointment flitted across Adrien's face. He pointedly stuck out his bottom lip and pouted at her. "You mean I could have been cherishing you kissing me for months and you kept that to yourself?"

Marinette had to laugh at his expression. "Calm down, it wasn't like it was a romantic situation or anything."

They fell into near-easy silence then, each getting wrapped in their own thoughts. Or falling asleep. When Marinette looked sideways at Adrien to read his face he was almost asleep on his feet, his chin dipping down toward his chest. She patted his shoulder.

"We should leave," she said.

They transformed and began crossing rooftops in the direction of Marinette's house, going so slowly and carefully that the sky had lightened to a pale grey by the time they touched down on her balcony. They stumbled into her room, and didn't even take the time to transform back before they collapsed and fell asleep side by side on the floor.

Marinette's parents had heard footsteps upstairs and came to see, and Marinette and Adrien were lucky for a couple reasons: 1) their transformations ended almost as soon as they were asleep. 2) Marinette had been doing homework in that very spot the previous afternoon and her books were still scattered. And 3) Marinette had sympathetic parents who, seeing that their daughter was clearly exhausted, decided to let her sleep a little before questioning her about her night of absence. Of course, seeing Adrien's boot and crutches helped to ease their troubled minds a little, since they knew their daughter was a kind soul who cared deeply for her friends.

* * *

It was almost ten before either Marinette or Adrien stirred at all. Marinette blearily opened her eyes and instantly wished she was still asleep. Her cheek hurt from being on top of a pencil, and she ached all over so much that she wondered if she'd be able to move.

She flexed her shoulders and turned her head the other way, knocking the pencil out of the way with her chin. Adrien was there, breathing deeply and looking so peaceful. She smiled, remembering something he'd told her the night before while they were traversing the rooftops.

 _"So Chat Noir has a thing for ladybug," Marinette had said._ How _they'd gotten on the subject she still wasn't sure. It was like late night sleepover talk, it just happened._

 _"And Marinette is crushing on Adrien," Adrien had laughed. "What a crazy two sided love square we got ourselves in."_

 _"What does that make us, then? A line?"_

 _"I like lines," Adrien had said quickly. "Especially two parallel lines that touch, because then they always touch." He'd paused and reached out to hold Marinette's hand._

 _"I'm glad to hear you pay attention in math," Marinette had smiled. But she liked that he was holding her hand._

 _"So..." Adrien had begun carefully, looking down at their hands. "I know we still have Hawk Moth to worry about, but... what do you think about being a bit more than friends?"_

 _"What does that mean?"_

 _"Well, maybe we hang out and do fun stuff together, and then sometimes we throw in like, the mushy stuff like this," he held up their entwined hands._

 _That had made Marinette giggle. "The mushy stuff?"_

 _"I swear I won't kiss you unless you want me to," Adrien drew an 'X' over his heart just then._

 _Marinette admitted that it did sound nice, so she agreed that, when they weren't being threatened by akumatized villains, they could be a 'bit more than friends'. She could have sworn that Adrien was so happy when she told him that he could have floated home._

Marinette was startled from her revere by a sharp knock at the door. She grunted in response and her mother came in, carrying a plate of pastries. Marinette squinted at her and tried for a smile but yawned instead. She flopped onto her back as her mother sat down on the floor and placed the plate between them. Adrien was still asleep.

"Where were you last night?"

Marinette cringed at the sound of forced calm. She sighed and pushed herself up. "I'm sorry I didn't call... He fell off a rock wall and wanted some company going to the hospital."

"And getting in at dawn?" her mother raised her eyebrows. "Your father and I were worried sick. You left your phone here."

Marinette glanced at her bed, where her phone lay face down. She was sure it was full of texts and missed calls that she was not looking forward to going through. "I'm really sorry," she said. "I don't have a good excuse for getting back so late... or for sneaking in. I'm sorry."

Her mother sighed. "I want you to understand that this isn't okay. You can't just run out and leave your phone behind."

"Am I grounded?"

"Today you'll stay home," her mother said. "You won't get any school work done with how tired you are. When he wakes up he needs to go home. Then tomorrow, I want you to go straight to school and come straight home and don't go anywhere else. Got it?"

Marinette was grateful that her mother never got angry, but she couldn't stand the disappointed tone she was hearing. She nodded and forced herself not to squirm. That satisfied her mother, and she left the plate of pastries behind when she left the room.

Adrien was just waking up when Marinette finally had the courage to crawl over to her bed and pick up her phone. He mumbled about his leg hurting, but sighed happily when he saw the waiting breakfast. Marinette scrolled through her notifications, and her stomach dropped. Alya had sent her a link to the Ladyblog, along with URGENT!. She grimaced and wondered what the post could be. She tapped on the link.

It was to a video, very unlike the style and quality that Alya usually posted. It looked like a big empty butterfly room. Even before she pushed play, Marinette could feel dread sinking in her stomach.

"Citizens of Paris, I demand your attention." The voice in the video was hauntingly familiar. The picture didn't change from the lazy butterflies. "You have two impostors in your midst, and they have been allowed to roam free for far too long. Ladybug, Chat Noir. I now give a warning to you. I know who you are. I know who your loved ones are and where they live and spend their days. Surrender to me by the end of today, and I'll leave them all alone. Ignore my message and I'll start picking them off, one by one, until you are alone in the world. Good day."

The phone fell out of Marinette's hand with a _clunk_ , and she could tell by the look on Adrien's face that he'd heard every word of the video.


	4. Chapter 4

"He's bluffing, he has to be."

Adrien said it immediately, pushing himself up to awkwardly hop over to sit next to Marinette on her bed. She was staring down at her phone on the floor, the last shot of the video still up.

"How could he find out who we are?" she asked quietly.

"He _didn't_ ," Adrien insisted. "He's just trying to scare us."

But he could tell that Marinette wasn't convinced. Heck, he wasn't even convinced. He reached down to scoop up the phone and handed it back to Marinette.

"You need to call Alya," he said. "See if she has a way to find out where this was posted from."

"She's in school," Marinette said weakly.

"Then text her," Adrien pressed. "This is the first time we've had any sort of clue about where Hawk Moth is. We can find him and take him down."

Marinette drew in a shaky breath and nodded. "You're right. We're superheroes, we can't be scared."

"Hey," Adrien reached out and gently turned her head so she was looking at him. "I didn't say that. We can be scared, as long as we're smart, too. And you know what?"

Marinette blinked. Her cheeks were very rosy, and Adrien could tell she was trying hard not to let her lower lip tremble. "What?"

"You're amazing. So we can do this."

She nodded and started tapping out her message to Alya. Adrien watched her, and his thoughts caught him up and he found himself wondering at the last several hours. It seemed like forever ago that they were ditching school to chase what they'd thought was just another akuma attack. Of course, at the time, he didn't know she was ditching too. As he'd left the classroom on the excuse of using the bathroom, he'd heard her ask to go too... It happened like that often, so he had always assumed that she was too shy to be the first to ask to go.

Then they'd realized they were chasing Hawk Moth, and then the bridge was exploding... Adrien scowled down at his booted ankle. The trip from the hospital had taken forever, and if he hadn't taken the boot off before transforming it probably would have disappeared. He didn't want to keep this up for six weeks! He huffed and flopped backwards onto Marinette's bed, which he realized in the moment was very comfortable.

"I don't like this," Marinette said. She was hitting her phone against the palm of her hand, waiting for Alya to reply. "How could he have found out who we are?"

She didn't say 'did' so Adrien feel so urgent in responding. He narrowed his eyes in thought. "If it were me..." he began slowly. "Well, he can use those akumas to grant powers. So if it were me, I'd give some people invisibility or something that would be useful in tailing someone, and then just tell them to stay low and keep an eye out for anything to do with us."

"Well, dang," Marinette said, raising an eyebrow. "How do I know _you're_ not Hawk Moth?"

Adrien laughed. "If I was, my next step would be to pin you down and take your earrings."

Marinette turned bright red and turned away, her shoulders very stiff. Adrien had to admit, he loved and admired the confidence and grace that Ladybug had, but he _adored_ this side of Marinette. He'd always thought it was a bit endearing, but now that he knew the reasons behind it? It made his heart feel too warm and mushy.

For a moment he was so happy floating on his little love cloud that he forgot they were being openly threatened.

"Ah, Alya!" Marinette snapped up her phone and opened the message, reading it quickly. "She can find out where it was posted from, but she'll have to use the computers in the library. She's gonna do that during lunch."

"We should try to meet her there," Adrien said, though he had no desire to move. In fact, what he really wanted was to trace patterns on Marinette's back with his fingers. He wondered if she'd get shy again.

Marinette frowned at him. "Why are you so distracted right now? A minute ago you were all business."

"You're bed is so comfy," he said with a lazy shrug. "I might just want to go back to sleep."

Marinette glanced at the door. "We need a plan," she said. "We have until the end of the day to at least look like we're surrendering to Hawk Moth. We don't even know where we're supposed to go."

"I think that's part of what Alya will find out at lunch," Adrien guessed. He peered at the clock on the night stand. "That's not for another two hours. Don't you want to sleep a bit more until then? We'll be no good in a fight if we're dead on our feet."

She glanced between Adrien and her clock. "I guess? But I don't know if I could. I'm too worried."

"We'll figure something out," Adrien said, his eyes sliding closed. "We always do, even when it seems hopeless. How many times has someone _almost_ gotten our miraculous? And every time we come out of it on top."

"Look out, your Chat Noir is showing," Marinette said dryly. But then she smiled and curled up almost on top of her pillow. She was still clutching her phone.

Adrien thought he heard her say something else, but he was already on his way to dream land.

* * *

A few hours later, Marinette was shaking him awake, looking apologetic. "There's someone here to pick you up," she said. "I put my number in your phone so we can keep texting and then we can make a plan but keep an eye on our families."

"Good idea," Adrien mumbled. He hid an excited wiggle with a stretch. _He had his Ladybug's number!_

She hurried to help him down the ladder, passing his crutches down once he was on the ground. He wasn't looking forward to explaining why he was gone all night, and began bracing himself for the lecture from his father.

"You okay?" Marinette asked.

Adrien scuffed his shoe on the floor. "Just wondering what my dad's gonna say," he said. He didn't look Marinette in the eye, because he could guess what her theory was. He didn't want to consider it, even for a second. But to keep her from worrying too much he flashed a smile at her. "I'll be okay, though. I'll text you as soon as I can."

Nathalie was waiting outside, next to the open car door. Adrien winced as he saw his bodyguard's face looking more grumpy than usual. None of them said anything as he got into the car, and he didn't even dare a small wave to Marinette as they drove away.

The ride home was painfully silent. And painful; Adrien had forgotten his pain meds in Marinette's room. His whole leg was throbbing and aching, and even his head was starting to hurt from lack of sleep. Absently he traced the shape of his ring, watching the buildings and cars and people pass by his window.

When they pulled up in front of his house, the last thing he'd been expecting was to see his father standing outside. He wasn't quite looking himself, but it was subtle; instead of his hands folded behind his back they were tucked into his trousers pockets. His tie was a little crooked. His hair wasn't exactly in place. Adrien stared in wonder, was his father really that worried about him?

"Where have you been?" his father demanded as soon as the car door was open. "Your bodyguard called me in the middle of the night to tell me that you'd disappeared from the hospital after getting a broken ankle looked at?"

Adrien shuffled his feet a little, now hyper-aware of how obvious his boot and crutches were. "I fell off my rock wall," he said meekly. "I didn't think I could sleep if I came home so I crashed at a friend's house."

Gabriel sighed, a little forcefully. "You have a bodyguard, and a cell phone, for a reason. Why didn't you notify Nathalie?"

"I don't have an excuse for that," Adrien said, wincing. "I'm sorry. I need to be more careful, I know."

"Yes you do." Gabriel straightened his shoulders and clasped his hands behind his back. "You are to stay in your room today. While you ponder the importance of staying in contact with Nathalie and myself, you will complete And for the next week you are not allowed to go _anywhere_ without your bodyguard. If you do, we'll start redecorating your room to something less fun."

Adrien nodded, hanging his head. He knew when it was not wise to argue. And honestly? He had bigger things to worry about.

* * *

You grounded?

Adrien's phone lit up before he even took it out of his pocket. He sat on his bed and tapped out a reply to Marinette.

Kind of, I'm gonna have a shadow for a week

Alya texted me gps coordinates for the video, but when I looked them up it was just an empty lot

A new building then. it wouldn't be on satellite images yet if it was built in the last year or so

I'm going to check it out. You stay home, I'm just gonna look.

Adrien frowned at her last text. Then he frowned at his boot. He really didn't like the idea of Ladybug swinging the streets without him to cover her back, especially with Hawk Moth so determined to get them.

What's the coordinates?

"You shouldn't go out, you'll get hurt more."

Plagg was suddenly sitting on his wrist.

"About time you woke up," Adrien said. He watched his screen, but there was no indication that Marinette was going to reply. She must have been on her way out the door when she texted him.

"I'm serious, last night was exhausting," Plagg complained. "And I didn't even get any cheese when we were done."

"Well you can get some now," Adrien waved his hand. "You know where it is."

Plagg flew off happily to one of his stashes of cheese, and as Adrien watched him, a thought crept into his mind.

"What did you see here last night?" Adrien asked.

"You mean when I had to convince Tikki that camembert was really good?" Plagg tossed a piece in his mouth. "There was nobody here. It was all empty."

"Really, that's it?"

"Yeah, why?"

Adrien frowned. "My bodyguard was here," he said slowly. "He found us pretty quickly after I faked my fall."

Plagg shrugged. "He might have been here. I don't know. I was too busy getting Tikki to eat some cheese."

"Of course," Adrien muttered. Maybe Tikki saw something... but she wasn't familiar with this house or the habits of those who lived there, so she wouldn't know what was odd. Besides, he couldn't really talk to her at the moment.

Instead, he sat in front of his computer and pulled up the Ladyblog. He decided to watch the video for himself to see what he could get... which wasn't much. Besides Hawk Moth's voice, the only other thing about the video was his collection of glowing butterflies in a darkened room. He leaned in closer; every few seconds, one of the butterflies would pass by the back wall, illuminating some kind of pattern. But they weren't bright enough to see the whole thing.

It got him thinking though, if there was some kind of distinguishing pattern on the wall-it looked too big to be patterned wallpaper-then a specialist had to have been hired, right? So if he could find out what kind of design it was on the wall, he might be able to get in contact with the builder, and then floor plans. Agreste money could buy just about anything, after all.

Adrien smiled, a plan starting to form in his mind. He opened a search engine and got to work.


	5. Chapter 5

Marinette didn't actually recon the building.

Well, she swung by it, but it was unremarkable and not much to look at. No open windows to peer inside, and only one useable door. Honestly it wouldn't be hard for either party to set up an ambush, and Marinette wasn't sure she liked that.

She got bored of the building pretty quickly and, feeling the need to talk to _somebody_ she headed off to Alya's house. It seemed like the rest of the school day took forever to pass, but finally Alya was seen coming down the sidewalk. She had her head down and was typing something on her phone. Marinette checked herself over quickly; a couple bruises and scrapes, but nothing that would beg too many questions from her friend.

"Alya!" Marinette called, waving. Alya looked up and beamed, and hurried to give a hug.

"Girl, what happened? Yesterday you were ditching class and then I don't hear from you until this morning?"

"Well, um, it's kind of a long story, but listen-"

"Inside," Alya insisted, steering Marinette towards the door.

"Okay, inside is best," Marinette agreed, considering what she felt like doing.

Once they were in Alya's room, she turned and looked expectantly at Marinette. Who, rather than talk, simply flopped face down on Alya's bed, took a deep breath, and yelled into the pillow.

"That bad, huh?"

Marinette took a breath to answer, but decided she wasn't done yelling. She gave the blanket an extra squeeze and the yell turned high pitched.

"Hey what happened?" Alya said with a laugh. She sat down next to Marinette.

Marinette turned over, unable to keep a smile off her face. "He likes me," she said, feeling oh so bubbly.

"What?!"

It had been too long, Marinette decided. She found out last night that Adrien, Chat Noir, _liked her._ Well Ladybug, but now that he knew she was Ladybug it didn't seem like his feelings changed. She thought of their conversation last night, how they'd agreed to be 'a bit more than friends', and she wiggled with delight at how many times he'd _asked_ to _kiss her_.

"Oh you better spill," Alya said with a gleam in her eye. "This is gonna be good, I can tell."

"Well..." Marinette covered her face, she knew she was smiling too wide. But she was also contemplating which parts of the night she could tell. She'd have to make up the rest. "I was-I was helping Adrien with some homework-"

"Nuh-uh," Alya shook her head. "This started when you both ditched class about the same time, didn't it?"

How did she get such a perceptive friend?

"Okay, it kind of did," Marinette said. She gnawed the inside of her cheek for a second. "You know that Akuma attack yesterday? Well Adrien and I kind of got caught up in the middle of it..."

"We've all been there, girl, no worries," Alya waved a hand.

"Well, Adrien got-he got hurt. His ankle got broken and he had to go to the hospital," Marinette was trying not to cringe at the vagueness of her own story. "He wanted me to come with so he could have some company we didn't get out until the middle of the night... On the way home we just-we kind of just got talking and-and the truth came out. From both of us." Marinette turned red and buried her face in Alya's pillow again.

"Okay first of all," Alya patted Marinette's shoulder. "This means you actually managed to have a coherent conversation with him. Good for you! And second? How dare you not call me as soon as you got home!"

"It was-"

"I don't care if it was two o'clock in the morning, this is something you call about!"

Marinette's face burned even brighter and Alya's eyes widened.

"When you say 'on the way home' do you mean-?"

"Adrien didn't want to go back to his house," Marinette barely squeaked out. She wiggled again and curled up into a ball. He'd slept on her _floor!_

"Holy crap," Alya said quietly.

"Yeah," Marinette nodded with a sigh. She held her hands together against her chest, smiling at the ceiling.

"Anything else you'd like to share with the class?"

Marinette laughed, then bit back a smile. "He asked to kiss me-"

"WHAT?"

"-twice."

"OH MY GOSH." Alya flopped back onto her bed, punching the air in some kind of victory dance. "Are pigs gonna start flying next? Oh! Maybe Ladybug will knock on my window in a sec! I don't think this day could get any better!"

Marinette giggled at her friend, glad that she was such a good outlet for all her warm fuzzies that she'd gained overnight. Then her smile faded as she remembered the reason behind the night.

It took Alya a minute to notice Marinette's mood crash. "Hey, what gives?"

Marinette frowned. "Um... Well I'm concerned about your blog," she said slowly, carefully. "Really, about Ladybug and Chat Noir, I guess. That video that got posted was pretty scary."

"Nah, they'll handle it," Alya said with a shrug. "They're superheroes! They've beaten Hawk Moth a dozen times over, they'll do it again. He doesn't have the upper hand on them."

"He said he knew who they are," Marinette pointed out.

"I don't think so," Alya said. "If he did, he would have probably delivered a more personal threat. If it were me, I'd set up some kind of surveillance around the city, especially on like, prime suspects, and see who looked most worried about their friends and family. Like, if one family with a teenage boy were to suddenly leave for vacation today, without the boy, then I'd know who Chat Noir was. No," Alya smiled at Marinette. "It's more likely that he doesn't know and he's trying to trick them into coming out on their own."

 _Adrien thinks so too,_ Marinette wanted to say. But she didn't really have a good reason for talking about Hawk Moth with him, so she didn't bring it up. But she did have an idea.

"Hey, those coordinates you sent me?"

"Yeah?"

"What do you think would happen if you posted them on the Ladyblog?"

Alya narrowed her eyes in thought. "Either he'd spook and rabbit, or he'd back out of his plan. It's hard to say what he'd do... But I think at the very least it could buy some time for Ladybug and Chat Noir."

"You should do it, then," Marinette said decisively. "They'll need all the time and help they could get against Hawk Moth."

* * *

As Marinette walked home, she looked at the Ladyblog on her phone. Alya did post the gps coordinates of the video on her blog, and now the forums were full of people posting their own ideas and plans to take down Hawk Moth. There were even a few posts with the picture of the building with comments like 'some secret lair' and 'what is this supposed to be?' Marinette smiled, glad that her idea was working better than she'd thought. She closed the blog and pulled up Adrien's number.

She had to take a breath to steady herself before starting the call. _It's just Chat_ , she told herself firmly.

"Hello?"

"Hey, did you see Alya's blog? She just updated it."

"Oh, hang on," Adrien said. There was a light bump, then some clicks. Then Adrien whistled. "That's gutsy," he said.

"It was my idea," Marinette said a little smugly. "Alya doesn't think he knows who we are either, so this might scare him out of his plan."

"Expose him, nice," Adrien said. It sounded like he was smiling. "Can you come over here? I have something I want to show you."

Marinette's heart skipped a beat at the invitation but she huffed to calm herself. "Yeah, I'll be there soon."

When she hung up she beamed at Tikki in her purse. "I'm getting better at this, Tikki!"

"It helps having a friend you can tell everything to," Tikki smiled back.

"Yeah it does," Marinette nodded. "Now, transform me!"

She got to Adrien's house in no time at all, but the whole way there she kept glancing around for cameras. Could Alya be right about that, too? Did Hawk Moth have the city under surveillance? To be sure, she doubled back and circled around and even transformed a couple blocks away from Adrien's house. As she walked she pulled open a couple of apps on her phone.

"What are you doing?" Tikki asked.

"I'm gonna need a way to get inside," Marinette said, showing the homework helper apps she'd opened.

The intercom came to life when Marinette pushed the button, and she waved shyly at the woman who answered. "I'm here to bring Adrien the notes he missed in school today," she said, hoping she wouldn't be recognized as the girl who Adrien had been with that morning.

"Leave them in the box," Nathalie said. The box on the wall popped open, and Marinette bounced her phone against her hand.

"Er, actually, the notes are on my phone, and I'd get in trouble if I let someone else have it..."

Nathalie rolled her eyes and the intercom screen turned off. Marinette was about to give up hope when the front doors opened and Nathalie came out, walking briskly towards the gates.

"You'll have fifteen minutes for him to get them down, and then I'll have to ask you to leave."

Marinette nodded gratefully and hurried inside after her. As she followed Nathalie to Adrien's room, she tried not to dwell too much on the night before, but she couldn't help wondering why Hawk Moth had brought them there. He _had_ a base of operations, why didn't they just get there? It would have been harder for them to escape! She frowned, worry enveloping her.

"Fifteen minutes," Nathalie reminded her, holding Adrien's door open.

Adrien was sitting at his computer, and be smiled widely when he saw Marinette come in. Nathalie didn't shut the door behind Marinette, so she stood with her back to the door and set her phone on the desk. "I have your notes from school," she said quickly. "From-from our interior design class."

Adrien nodded, understanding. "Can you look at this set up and see if it'll be good for that assignment?"

He turned a notebook and some loose papers toward her, and showed a rough sketch of some kind of circular design, as well as what looked like professional blueprints of the same design.

"It's a window," Adrien said. "It has a retractable wall on one side and opens in a kind of spiral." he dropped his voice to a whisper. "That must be how the akumas get out."

"I saw this kind of thing," Marinette whispered back. "I thought it was just the way the wall panels were laid. It faces the street."

She pulled open the Ladyblog and found one of the pictures posted in the forum. "There," she said.

"The whole building is run on an electric system," Adrien said, pulling out a different blueprint. He glanced at the door. "If we can figure out how to cut the power with the window closed we could trap him in the building."

"What about a backup generator?"

"Yeah we'd have to cut that too," Adrien said. "Unfortunately for us I think both are buried underground and can't be accessed except from inside the building."

"But that wouldn't make sense," Marinette frowned at the papers. "You'd need a secondary access point in case of a lock down, right?"

"You didn't see anything?"

"There wasn't much to see," Marinette shrugged, omitting her visit with Alya. "But I think it would be a good idea to see what underground maps we can get our hands on."

"Okay, I'll get on that. You stay out of trouble," Adrien caught her hand and brushed a kiss across her knuckles, and his cheeks turned a little pink. Marinette felt her stomach doing flips.

"I'll be okay," she breathed. She bit her lip and suddenly she wanted to-

Well, she wanted to kiss him.

Her breath was caught in her throat, and she quickly leaned in. Their first real kiss was short and sweet, and left _both_ of them feeling light and happy. Marinette offered a little wave and hurried out of his room, keeping her head ducked as Nathalie escorted her back to the gates.

She recovered just enough to realize that Adrien had looked quite dazed when she left and a mischievous smile began to grow. She thought of all the relentless flirting that had come from Chat Noir _ever_ and realized she was going to have a lot of fun with payback.


	6. Chapter 6

Adrien was still staring at the door an hour after Marinette left. He had one hand raised up and tapping his lips- _holy crap Marinette kissed him_. He smiled, let out a breathy little laugh, and sighed.

"Stop that _."_

Plagg appeared right in front of Adrien's face. "You've been on cloud nine since Marinette left, and it's time you took that goofy look off your face."

"But she kissed me, Plagg," Adrien sighed again.

"I know, I was here. But we have work to do, remember?" Plagg reminded him. "Find a map of the underground stuff."

He took a breath and focused himself on his internet search. However it didn't take long before his determined clicking and searching turned into absent and random actions. Adrien rested his chin in his hand and smiled a little. Marinette's kiss had been light and quick, not quite what he'd fantasized about with Ladybug-most of his daydreams involved something passionate after a super-heroic save... but the more he thought about it the more he liked it that way. Anything different wouldn't have really suited Marinette.

His phone buzzing on the table snapped him out of his fog, and he saw it was the number of the architect he'd phoned earlier. "Hello? Did you find those drafts?"

"I did indeed, Mr. Agreste," the architect said. "I was afraid I'd thrown them out but I was lucky-they got filed away by mistake!"

"That _is_ lucky," Adrien agreed. "Can you scan them and email them to me?"

"Already scanned them, I'm just putting them in an email now."

"Excellent," Adrien opened his email, more than a little anxious.

"And... done! I hope they help, Mr. Agreste," the architect said cheerfully. "I'm sure your house remodel is going to look fantastic."

"Thank you, and I'll be in touch when I have my own designs drawn up," Adrien nodded when a new email popped up.

He did feel bad about lying to get the plans, but he hoped that beating Hawk Moth would even him out. When he'd gotten the first set of plans of Hawk Moth's lair, he'd noticed that in the corner there was a series of numbers that he found out meant that was not the first draft and design of the building. That got him thinking that an earlier, seemingly scrapped draft of the place might have something on it that would clue them in to a secret entrance. He opened the email and downloaded the attachments.

"Looks like it was going to have a garden terrace in the back," Adrien said as he scrolled through the plans.

"That would be a pretty good place to hide butterflies in plain sight," Plagg said. He was sitting on Adrien's shoulder.

"I wonder why he didn't keep it..."

* * *

Marinette's afternoon was much less productive.

She managed to keep herself together all the way home, and, after making sure her parents were fine in the bakery, went upstairs to collapse on her floor in a bubbly, giddy mess.

 _Ten minutes,_ she told herself. _You can freak out for ten minutes._

Of course, ten minutes seems hardly a blink to the truly blissful. In fact, she lay on her floor for much longer than that, and the only thing to snap her out of her trance was Chat Noir tapping on her window.

She blinked up at him, confused, then she noticed the sky behind him was starting to be streaked through with pink and orange, and she realized she'd wasted her entire day. She mentally kicked herself while she let him in.

"You ready to go?" Chat Noir asked.

Marinette bit her lip, glancing down at his ankle. "I didn't really think up a plan," she said awkwardly.

"We'll make it up as we go along, just like always," Chat Noir smiled at her. "I figured out how to get us in, though. We'll be fine."

"You sure?"

Chat Noir nodded. "Now, where is my favorite Lady?"

Marinette hesitated. They'd transformed in front of each other last night when they were escaping from Hawk Moth and then again leaving the hospital. But now, fully awake and... well, Chat was already transformed. He'd just be watching her. It made her feel self conscious. Her cheeks felt a little warm.

She huffed a breath to steady herself. "Let's do this. Tikki, transform me!"

As the magic washed over her, she felt a renewed sense of bravery. It was easier to feel so while wearing a mask, even as she saw the look of complete adoration on Chat Noir's face. Honestly, she would have preferred to stay and let him look at her like that all night- _it's Adrien!_ she reminded herself joyfully-but they had a threat to face.

"Come on, mon minou," she said, flicking his bell. "Let's go catch a butterfly."

"Whatever you say, my Lady," Chat hummed.

They climbed out to the balcony, Ladybug keeping an eye on Chat's ankle. But he must have done something to it, because he was only walking with a slight limp. She decided to ask.

"I spent an hour practicing climbing around my room," Chat replied, standing on his good foot and swinging the other around. "I think I'm getting pretty good at one foot landings. We should be able to traverse the rooftops no problem."

"Let's still go slow," Ladybug insisted.

While they didn't take the path at their usual run-and-leap pace, they didn't crawl either. Chat was able to hop on one foot, using his booted foot to swing his momentum forward. Ladybug stayed right by his side at a nice jog, and she swung them both across any spaces with her yo-yo.

"So what's the plan for getting in?" Ladybug asked. They were only a few blocks away from their destination.

"There's a sewer access hole just south of the property that's not actually sewer access," Chat said. "I looked at satellite pictures and sewage maps and there is a manhole cover that shouldn't be there. That's gotta be access to a backup generator or whatever, we can get down their and cut off his power and then trap him inside."

"I feel like that's too easy, though," Ladybug frowned. "A manhole cover might not get noticed by regular civilians, but he had to know we'd catch on to that... besides, I don't like the idea of going underground with only one known exit."

"Well," Chat hopped to a stop and swept his hand in front of them. "How about we just knock on the front door?"

They were across the street from the building. It's face was growing ominously dark in the evening light. Ladybug frowned, considering the place. The architecture could have been enchanting, if she'd seen it without knowing who stayed there. And if there were more windows.

"Shall we go down?"

"Hold on," Ladybug stopped Chat from dropping over the side. "I don't see anyone."

"So?"

"So..." she looked up and down the street. Deserted. "Alya released the location of this place on the Ladyblog. Why isn't it crawling with people?"

Now Chat looked worried too. "I hope whatever the reason is it has nothing to do with Hawk Moth. But we should get down their before he decides to go after our families."

Ladybug felt a weight in her stomach, and it was the thought of her parents, of Alya, staying safe that helped her move her jelly limbs to get down to the street. She kept her eyes trained across the street almost the whole time, only looking away when Chat Noir took her hand once they were both standing on the pavement.

"Purr-haps now would be a good time to express tender sentiments?"

"Oh we're back to the puns now?"

Chat smiled for a moment, then sighed. "I'm worried..." he turned and scrutinized the building across the street. "He bested us once. He seems to think he could do it again, and we're not even fully recovered from our last fight."

Ladybug studied him for a moment. "I thought you were going for tender sentiments?"

He laughed. "You're my rock," he said simply. "As strange as it sounds, I feel like you're the one thing in my life I can count on, the one person I can always rely on to be there for me."

"Every time," Ladybug assured him. She gave his hand a squeeze, and she could feel a lump in her throat. "Chaton?"

"Hmm?"

Her jaw was working, but her voice was not. Her mind flew past a million words, trying to come out with the perfect thing to say to ready them both for the situation, something to make them both brave. But nothing seemed right, nothing settled.

Instead she just turned his head and leaned in, pressing her lips to his momentarily. As she pulled back, she could feel tears threatening to rise. She sniffed and turned away.

"Let's go knock on the door, okay?"

* * *

It wasn't the best plan, Chat had to admit. But they walked across the street hand in hand, and after his Lady had kissed him, he felt like he could take on a hundred akumas and still win. He felt unstoppable with her by his side.

That is, until the door swung open by itself as soon as they were on the front walk.

Until they tentatively stepped inside the dark building and the door slammed closed behind them.

Until they heard, "Get them, Daydreamer."

Until Chat felt himself swooping towards the floor and blacking out.


	7. Author's note

Y'ALL

I need to be honest here, this is not how I'd intended Mercy to pan out. I had a very specific, much shorter story plotted out, but I allowed myself to be swayed by someone expressing their opinion/theory that differed from my own. BUT I've decided I'm going to revert back to the original plot, which means I'll be reposting this story in all its glory. It may take a bit of time to work the kinks out but I hope I'll be able to get it up soon. Cheers!


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